Indiana University Athletics
Closer Look At Christina Loukas
2/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
February 17, 2005
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Freshman Christina Loukas will enter tonight's Big Ten one-meter diving final at 8:07 p.m. in the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center, as the top seed after shattering the pool, conference meet and school records with her performance in the preliminaries.
In the prelims of the one-meter event, she bested Sara Reiling's pool mark of 323.48 and her Big Ten school mark of 318.50, both set in 2003, with her tally of 325.20. Loukas also topped Purdue's Carrie McCambridge's Big Ten record total of 321.80 set last year.
She posted scores of 50.0, 58.50 and 52.90 on her initial three dives and closed the preliminary with marks of 50.40, 54.60 and blasted a 58.80 on her final dive to secure the top seed.
Today's performance was just a matter of time, as Loukas steadily peaked to this point of the season.
The Riverwoods, Ill., native opened the season with a zone-qualifying mark of 270.83, on the one-meter board, against then-No. 21 Arizona State on Oct. 30 in Bloomington.
She claimed five title crowns during the season with her first coming on the one-meter (307.40) against Kentucky and Southwest Missouri State on Dec. 6. Loukas picked up the top honor on the one-meter (311.20) at the IU Invite. She then floored the competition at Illinois, sweeping both the one-meter and three-meter, with zone-qualifying marks of 297.85 and 292.20, respectively.
Loukas saved her best crown for last against Big Ten foe and then-No. 14 Penn State, Jan. 28-29, as she broke the school dual-meet record in the three-meter, posting a 354.00. She smashed the mark set by Reiling, 332.02, during the 2000 season.
Prior to the Penn State dual, she participated in the USA Diving International Selection camp in Indianapolis.
Before she joined the IU team this fall, the daughter of George and Patty Loukas won the Illinois High School State Diving Championship three straight years from 2001-03 and holds the Illinois high school record on the one-meter.
